KR20130139065A - Apparatus for transferring substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is a substrate transferring apparatus. The substrate transferring apparatus according to the present invention includes an inlet conveyor which includes a first lane and a second lane to transfer the substrate in a first direction, a substrate processing unit which receives the substrate from the inlet conveyor, and an outlet conveyor which includes a third lane and a fourth lane to transfer the substrate by receiving the substrate from the substrate transferring unit. The first to fourth lanes individually include two transfer rails which are independently displaced in a direction which is vertical to the first direction. A pair of adjacent transfer rails among a plurality of transfer rails comprise a transfer unit and transfer the substrate.

Description

Substrate transfer device {APPARATUS FOR TRANSFERRING SUBSTRATE}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a substrate transfer apparatus, and more particularly, to a substrate transfer apparatus capable of transferring a plurality of substrates efficiently in various ways.

In general, a component mounting apparatus is a device for mounting an electronic component such as an integrated circuit, a high density integrated circuit, a diode, a capacitor, and a resistor (hereinafter, referred to as a component) on a substrate such as a printed circuit board. Say.

Such a component mounting apparatus picks up components supplied from a component supply module for supplying components to be mounted on a substrate, a substrate transport module for transporting a substrate so that components supplied from the component supply module can be mounted, and then In order to mount the picked-up parts on the board, a head assembly having a nozzle spindle is picked up at a preset position for supplying the parts, that is, the picked-up parts are mounted. And a horizontal moving module for moving the head assembly in the X direction and the Y direction so that the head assembly can be mounted in the component mounting area at the preset position.

Domestic Patent Publication No. 2010-0001174 (published 6 January 2010)

In the case of a substrate transfer device for transferring a substrate on a conveyor, a structure in which two mounting mechanisms are arranged back and forth on a two-row conveyor structure in order to increase the speed of mounting components on a circuit board. Such a substrate transfer apparatus includes a conveyor for supplying a substrate, a conveyor for moving the supplied substrate adjacent to the head assembly, and a conveyor for unloading the mounted conveyor.

Referring to FIG. 1, a substrate transfer apparatus having a two-row conveyor structure is disclosed. Two-row conveyors 3a and 3b are arranged at the center of the substrate transfer device, and mounting modules 4a and 4b including the head assembly are disposed adjacent to each conveyor 3a and 3b, respectively. The operation | work which mounts the necessary component D in the predetermined position of the board | substrate P2 and P3 supported on the 2nd row conveyors 3a and 3b is performed.

At this time, as shown in the figure, shuttle conveyors 1 and 2 capable of distributing the circuit boards to the empty conveyors of the two-row conveyors 3a and 3b are required, and the circuit boards having completed a predetermined work such as mounting are processed in the following process. There is a need for shuttle conveyors 5 and 6 for transferring to stages.

As such, when the shuttle conveyor is mounted in addition to the two-row conveyor, the width (left and right length) of the equipment becomes long, and when the shuttle conveyor is attached to the inside of the equipment, the length of the lane of the two-row conveyor where the components are mounted is short. Since it loses, mounting efficiency and conveyance efficiency may fall.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been conceived from this point, and an object of the present invention is to provide a substrate transfer apparatus capable of performing a transfer function and a shuttle dispensing function together in one structure.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a substrate transfer apparatus capable of quickly transferring a plurality of substrates and increasing space efficiency.

Problems to be solved by the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned problems, and other problems not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a substrate transfer apparatus, including an inlet conveyor including a first lane and a second lane for supporting a substrate and transferring the substrate along a first direction, from the inlet conveyor. And an exit conveyor including a substrate processing unit receiving the substrate, and a third lane and a fourth lane receiving the substrate from the substrate processing unit and transferring the substrate, wherein the first to fourth lanes each include: And two transfer rails independently displaced in a direction perpendicular to the first direction, wherein a pair of adjacent transfer rails of the plurality of transfer rails constitutes a transfer unit to transfer the substrate.

Other specific details of the invention are included in the detailed description and drawings.

1 is a view showing a substrate transfer apparatus having a general two-row conveyor structure.
2 is a view showing a substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 and 4 are views showing the structure of the inlet conveyor constituting the substrate transfer device of FIG.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a substrate processing unit constituting the substrate transfer device of FIG. 2.
6 and 7 are views showing the structure of the exit conveyor constituting the substrate transfer device of FIG.
8 to 10 are views illustrating a process of transferring a substrate by setting the substrate transfer apparatus of FIG. 2 to different modes.
11 is a view showing a substrate transfer apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Advantages and features of the present invention and methods for achieving them will be apparent with reference to the embodiments described below in detail with the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Is provided to fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art, and the invention is only defined by the scope of the claims. The dimensions and relative sizes of layers and regions in the figures may be exaggerated for clarity of illustration.

In the present specification, the singular form includes plural forms unless otherwise specified in the specification. As used herein, the terms "comprises" and / or "made of" means that a component, step, operation, and / or element may be embodied in one or more other components, steps, operations, and / And does not exclude the presence or addition thereof.

The terms spatially relative, "below", "beneath", "lower", "above", "upper" and the like, Lt; / RTI > can be used to easily describe the correlation between the two. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

For example, when the same component is provided in plural, the alphabet is written at the end of the same numeral.

Hereinafter, a substrate transfer apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 7. 2 is a view showing a substrate transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figures 3 and 4 are views showing the structure of the inlet conveyor constituting the substrate transfer apparatus of Figure 2, Figure 5 is a view of FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the board | substrate process part which comprises a board | substrate conveyance apparatus, and FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 is a figure which shows the structure of the exit conveyor which comprises the board | substrate conveyance apparatus of FIG.

The substrate transfer apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes an inlet conveyor 100, a substrate processing unit 200, and an outlet conveyor 300.

Referring to FIG. 2, the inlet conveyor 100 serves to receive the substrate P supplied from the outside and transfer the same to the substrate processing unit 200. In the illustrated example, the inlet conveyor 100 is illustrated as a two-row conveyor structure. It is not necessary to have a configuration in which two or more conveyors are provided in parallel.

The substrate processing unit 200 receives a substrate P from the inlet conveyor 100 and performs a predetermined operation. The operation is not limited to mounting components on the substrate P, and various operations such as etching and cleaning may be performed. Hereinafter, for convenience of description, only the example in which the component is mounted on the substrate P in the substrate processing unit 200 will be described. However, this is not intended to limit the scope of rights.

The exit conveyor 300 receives a substrate P having a predetermined work from the substrate processing unit 200 and transfers the result to the outside to proceed to the next process. Similarly, although illustrated as a two-row conveyor structure, it is not limited thereto, and may have a configuration in which two or more rows of conveyors are provided in parallel.

With reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the detailed structure of the inlet conveyor 100 is demonstrated.

The inlet conveyor 100 may include a first lane 110 and a second lane 120 that support the substrate and transport the substrate along a first direction (right in the drawing). As shown, each of the lanes 110 and 120 is composed of two transport rails, and the transport rails may be independently displaced in a second direction (up and down in the drawing) perpendicular to the first direction.

Specifically, the pair of transport rails 110a and 110b of the first lane 110 are connected to the first guide member 111 and reciprocate along the second direction by a driving means (not shown) such as a motor. can do. The pair of transfer rails 110a and 110b provided in the first lane 110 may be displaced independently of each other, and may move within a length range of the first guide member 111.

In some embodiments, the one side transfer rail 110a of the first lane 110 may be fixed to one end of the first guide member 111 and may not be moved, and may keep the width of the entire inlet conveyor 100 constant. have.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, the one side transfer rail 110a of the first lane 110 may be connected to the second guide member 112, and the other side transfer rail 110b may be the second guide member 112. It may have a structure that is not connected with. The second guide member 112 may control the alignment of the one side transfer rail 110a and the substrate processing unit 200 constituting the outermost portion of the first lane 110.

As shown in FIG. 2, in the initial state, the one side transfer rail 110a is maintained in alignment with the end of the substrate processing unit 200, and the one side transfer rail 110a along the second guide member 112. ) Moves to the upper portion of the drawing is located in the outer range of the substrate processing unit 200, the width of the vertical movement range of the other transfer rail (110b) becomes wider as the one transfer rail (110a) moves.

As will be described later, the two transfer rails (110a, 110b) of the first lane 110 may constitute a shuttle unit for transferring the substrate, the first lane 110 and the second lane 120 A pair of transfer rails 110b and 120a adjacent to each other among the transfer rails may constitute a shuttle unit. In this case, the shuttle unit may include a first substrate processing conveyor 210 and a second substrate processing conveyor (of the substrate processing unit 200). The transfer rails 110a and 120b at both ends are moved outwardly along the second guide member 112 so that the width between the transfer rails 110a and 120b at both ends is widened to supply the substrate while reciprocating between the 220 and 220. do. As a result, a situation in which the shuttle unit collides with or interferes with other transfer rails 110a and 120b may be prevented.

As such, the one side transfer rail 110a and the other side transfer rail 110b constituting the first lane 110 may be freely positioned and widthed independently of each other by the first guide member 111 and the second guide member 112. This may vary, and in particular, the one side transfer rail 110a connected to the second guide member 112 may be controlled by a predetermined first driving unit to control the width of the inlet conveyor 100.

Similar to the first lane 110, the second lane 120 may include a pair of transport rails 120a and 120b and may be adjacent to the first lane 110. The pair of conveying rails 120a and 120b of the second lane 120 are all connected to the third guide member 121 to move up and down in the drawing, and the one conveying rail 120b is the fourth guide member ( 122) can be moved up and down on the drawings in an independent state. In particular, the transfer rail 120b connected to the fourth guide member 122 may be controlled by the predetermined second driving unit to control the width of the inlet conveyor 100.

In some other embodiments, the inlet conveyor 100 may further include additional lanes in addition to the first lane 110 and the second lane 120, and may have a structure for transferring two or more substrates at the same time.

Referring to FIG. 5, the substrate processing unit 200 includes a first substrate processing conveyor 210 and a second substrate processing conveyor 220, and is disposed on substrates P11 and P12 transferred from the inlet conveyor 100. Do the work. In the illustrated example, the component D is mounted on one surface of the substrates P11 and P12 through the mounting modules 230a and 230b formed adjacent to the first and second substrate processing conveyors 210 and 220.

The substrate processing unit 200 may be formed of two or more conveyors, and other operations may be performed in addition to the component mounting as described above.

The substrates P11 and P12 that have completed a predetermined work in the substrate processing unit 200 are moved to the exit conveyor 300 along the moving direction.

The outlet conveyor 300 may have the same structure as the inlet conveyor 100, and may include a third lane 310 and a fourth lane 320 to quickly transfer various types of substrates. The outlet conveyor 300 serves to transfer the completed substrate to the outside, and as described below, when a plurality of substrate transfer apparatuses are connected in series, the outlet conveyor 300 may supply the substrate to the inlet conveyor of the adjacent substrate transfer apparatus again ( See FIG. 11).

Hereinafter, a process of transferring the substrate in the substrate transfer apparatus will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 8 to 10. 8 to 10 are views illustrating a process of transferring a substrate by setting the substrate transfer apparatus of FIG. 2 to different modes.

Referring to FIG. 8, an example in which the transfer rails constituting the first lane and the second lane of the inlet conveyor 100 constitute shuttle units SU1 and SU2 is disclosed. In this case, the first shuttle unit SU1 and the second shuttle unit SU2 do not move in the vertical direction in the drawing, and continuously transfer the substrate to the conveyor of the substrate processing unit 200 while maintaining the same width.

On the other hand, of the transport rails constituting the third lane and the fourth lane of the exit conveyor 300, the two transport rails constituting the outermost are moved in a direction away from each other along each guide member, and the remaining two rails 3 Shuttle unit (SU3) can be configured. It can be seen that the width in the vertical direction on the drawing of the exit conveyor 300 is shown to be wider than the width of the substrate processing unit 200. The third shuttle unit SU3 may receive a substrate while reciprocating the upper conveyor or the lower conveyor of the substrate processing unit 200 and discharge the substrate to the outside.

Referring to FIG. 9, in contrast to the configuration shown in FIG. 8, a fourth shuttle unit SU4 is configured at the inlet conveyor 100 to selectively supply the substrate to the substrate processing unit 200, and the outlet conveyor ( The third lane and the fourth lane 300 may configure the fifth shuttle unit SU5 and the sixth shuttle unit SU6, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 10, a configuration in which the inlet conveyor 100 and the outlet conveyor 300 constitute one shuttle unit SU7 and SU8 to supply and discharge a substrate is disclosed. As described above, in this case, in order to ensure the movement range of the shuttle units SU7 and SU8, the transfer rails at both ends are moved outwardly to have a wider range than the width of the substrate processing unit 200 by the respective guide rails. I can move it.

That is, the inlet conveyor 100 and the outlet conveyor 300 may be freely deformed by the plurality of transfer rails and the plurality of guide members, and may serve to transfer the substrate as it is to the dual lane. The shuttle may perform a function of supplying or discharging the substrate while moving between the lanes.

Hereinafter, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 11. 11 is a view showing a substrate transfer apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The substrate transfer apparatus according to the present embodiment has a structure in which two or more substrate transfer apparatuses according to the above-described embodiments are connected in series. That is, when it is desired to perform a predetermined inline process on the substrate, the first substrate transfer module 1000 may be configured to perform a first operation, and then perform the second operation on the connected second substrate transfer module 2000. have.

In the illustrated example, the inlet conveyor of the first substrate transfer module 1000 and the outlet conveyor of the second substrate transfer module 2000 may constitute one or more shuttle units without limitation, provided that the first substrate transfer is connected to each other. The outlet conveyor of the module 1000 and the inlet conveyor of the second substrate transfer module 2000 may have the same structure so as to quickly transfer the same substrate.

As such, the substrate transport apparatus according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may have various configurations of the inlet conveyor and the outlet conveyor, as required, and maintain itself without the need for a separate shuttle conveyor. Since the shuttle unit can be configured as needed, the space utilization of the equipment is high, and the inline process can be easily configured.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, You will understand. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative in all aspects and not restrictive.

100: entrance conveyor
200; Substrate Processing Unit
300: exit conveyor

Claims (14)

An inlet conveyor for supporting a substrate and including a first lane and a second lane for transporting the substrate along a first direction;
A substrate processing unit receiving the substrate from the inlet conveyor; And
An outlet conveyor including a third lane and a fourth lane receiving the substrate from the substrate processing unit and transferring the substrate;
Each of the first to fourth lanes includes two transfer rails that are independently displaced in a direction perpendicular to the first direction.
A pair of adjacent transfer rails of the plurality of transfer rails constitutes a transfer unit to transfer the substrate. The method of claim 1,
And the two transfer rails included in the first lane of the inlet conveyor constitute a first transfer unit, and the two transfer rails included in the second lane constitute a second transfer unit. 3. The method of claim 2,
And a width of the inlet conveyor is equal to a width of the substrate treating portion. The method of claim 1,
And the two transfer rails included in the third lane of the exit conveyor constitute a third transfer unit, and the two transfer rails included in the fourth lane constitute a fourth transfer unit. 5. The method of claim 4,
And a width of the outlet conveyor is the same as that of the substrate processing part. The method of claim 1,
The substrate processing unit includes a first substrate processing conveyor provided at a position corresponding to the first lane and a third lane, and a second substrate processing conveyor provided at a position corresponding to the second lane and the fourth lane. Substrate transfer device. The method according to claim 6,
And a first transfer rail included in the first lane of the inlet conveyor and a second transfer rail adjacent to the first transfer rail included in the second lane constitute a first shuttle unit. The method of claim 7, wherein
And the first shuttle unit supplies the substrate while moving between the first substrate processing conveyor or the second substrate processing conveyor. The method of claim 7, wherein
And the width of the inlet conveyor is wider than the width of the substrate processing unit. The method according to claim 6,
And a third transfer rail included in the third lane of the exit conveyor and a fourth transfer rail adjacent to the third transfer rail included in the fourth lane constitute a second shuttle unit. The method of claim 10,
And the second shuttle unit receives the substrate while moving between the first substrate processing conveyor or the second substrate processing conveyor. The method of claim 10,
And the width of the outlet conveyor is wider than the width of the substrate processing portion. The method of claim 1,
The inlet conveyor,
And a first driving part configured to control the width of the inlet conveyor by moving the transport rails disposed at both outermost sides of the inlet conveyor in a direction away from each other. The method of claim 1,
The exit conveyor,
And a second driver configured to control the width of the exit conveyor by moving the transfer rails disposed at both outermost sides of the exit conveyor in a direction away from each other.

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